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I started searching for a decent 28-29 body for my Model A Roadster project in the late 90s, and quickly learned that it was one of the most expensive and in-demand A bodies out there. Apparently everybody else had been reading Don Montgomery's 'Hot Rods As They Were' and the Bishop & Tardel 'How to Build a Traditional A-V8' books! When a nice Sport Coupe body came up for dirt cheap, it sure seemed close enough to a Roadster to my young and untrained eyes. It didn't take long to realize that...

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There were some really great looking STREET RODS built from sport coupes in California in the '70s, but they were full-fendered and un-chopped. Trying to make a traditional hot rod using a sport coupe body would be a very difficult task if one is looking to end up with a graceful-appearing car. They were awkward from the get-go and there's just no way to slice them to make that situation any better.

From what I can tell, my coupester started life as a sport coupe but quickly devolved into a totally gutted topless shell that was used for bull ring dirt-track roadster racing before being scrapped. Some enterprising soul eventually salvaged what was left - the cowl, gutted tank, gutted doors, gutted quarters was all that remained - and put it onto a bent Model A frame to create the first iteration of many of this car's second life as a hot rod.

I'm probably the 10th owner of this combination of cast-off parts, not counting the folks who bought the car originally, some of whom were talented builders but most not so much. During my tenure I've done quite a lot of work to improve not only the workmanship (which was terrible!) but also the proportions to create what I consider an acceptable "coupester" version of the butt-ugly sport coupe. It still doesn't have the slinky lines of a real roadster, but I'm proud of it.

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Congratulations! It looks a fair sight better than most I have seen. Changing the windshield, tilting the posts and getting rid of the visor certainly go a long way in improving the looks.

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Thanks! I don't know exactly where Jive-Bomber wanted this thread to go and I certainly don't want to hijack it, but the things you've mentioned are not the way my car was built. I have seen some built that way and was not satisfied with the end result. Getting the body to be proportionally pleasing requires major surgery at the top of the cowl, doors and quarter panels to remove the excess visual vertical thickness that remains after the top is cut off. It also involves (as you mentioned) a change of windshield to one that's both wider and lower as well as leaned back from vertical. The in-front-of-deck-lid panel area also requires major changes which extend out into the quarter panels. And, as you might expect, there's a whole lot more that I've not mentioned.

I think this is why so many cut-off coupes get junked instead of finished. Guys just don't anticipate how much work is involved to to get the finished results they envision. There's one coupester that was really done right which has been shown here on the HAMB a number of times. I wish I could remember the name of the guy who built it - he posts here quite often but about other cars since his coupester was sold and is gone. If I remember I'll poke him and ask him to post some photos of it. In the meantime here's a good thread on coupsters in general...

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Keeping the windows and top appeals to the practical side of me. The stubby, bantam-esque proportions don't immediately make you think "hot rod", though. But roadster or hard top, push the front axle and radiator out another 6" or more and drop in a 6 or even a straight 8, leave it alone from the cowl back and it's 90% done.

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There were some really great looking STREET RODS built from sport coupes in California in the '70s, but they were full-fendered and un-chopped. Trying to make a traditional hot rod using a sport coupe body would be a very difficult task if one is looking to end up with a graceful-appearing car. They were awkward from the get-go and there's just no way to slice them to make that situation any better.

From what I can tell, my coupester started life as a sport coupe but quickly devolved into a totally gutted topless shell that was used for bull ring dirt-track roadster racing before being scrapped. Some enterprising soul eventually salvaged what was left - the cowl, gutted tank, gutted doors, gutted quarters was all that remained - and put it onto a bent Model A frame to create the first iteration of many of this car's second life as a hot rod.

I'm probably the 10th owner of this combination of cast-off parts, not counting the folks who bought the car originally, some of whom were talented builders but most not so much. During my tenure I've done quite a lot of work to improve not only the workmanship (which was terrible!) but also the proportions to create what I consider an acceptable "coupester" version of the butt-ugly sport coupe. It still doesn't have the slinky lines of a real roadster, but I'm proud of it.

ALLIANCE MEMBER

I really think one should consider hacking the unique roofs of of these unique examples of Henry's styling
the Special Coupes and Cabriolet...they really have a lot to offer...just an opinion...
There are some fine examples of well enough left alone...around here...your call of course...

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I couldn't find a roadster anywhere near Santa Clara, CA. in 1955.
My bud Jim Rose spotted a body in the field behind Lantz Lumber, whole body, top there, too.
We walked over to Lantz, saw some guys eating lunch near the body's location...One guy spoke up, it was his...He'd take what I had ($3.00!) in my pocket for it, long as I'd have it gone before Monday morning...
We got it home hand pushing my '36 Ford frame, started Saturday morning at 8: A.M., got it to Grandma's home garage by dark. (8: P.M.!)
I channeled it over a $5 '32 frame, 'bulldog' front end, '37 Ford tube.
Cabriolet got the door tops trimmed, looked like a long-door roadster with a solid windshield! (no visor, '30 Cabriolet was clean at the windshield frame.)
106" wheelbase, flathead, '39 box. '32 rear, juice brakes all around. Long and low, clean.

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I have to take issue with those that are bad-mouthing the 28/29 "A" Sport Coupe body as a basis for a fine hot rod.
The red car was built by Wilson and Steeley Kustom Coachworks (Athol, Mass). The "23 jr" B/Roadster body was from a Sport Coupe body that I was building on Deuce rails, and loaned to Arnie Shuman ("Cool Cars & Square Roll Bars" author, with his brother Bernie) around 1962, used for one season with his Deuce running gear and Olds engine. (His '32 body, as I recall, was being cherried out, taking longer than expected!)

ALLIANCE MEMBER

I couldn't find a roadster anywhere near Santa Clara, CA. in 1955.
My bud Jim Rose spotted a body in the field behind Lantz Lumber, whole body, top there, too.
We walked over to Lantz, saw some guys eating lunch near the body's location...One guy spoke up, it was his...He'd take what I had ($3.00!) in my pocket for it, long as I'd have it gone before Monday morning...
We got it home hand pushing my '36 Ford frame, started Saturday morning at 8: A.M., got it to Grandma's home garage by dark. (8: P.M.!)
I channeled it over a $5 '32 frame, 'bulldog' front end, '37 Ford tube.
Cabriolet got the door tops trimmed, looked like a long-door roadster with a solid windshield! (no visor, '30 Cabriolet was clean at the windshield frame.)
106" wheelbase, flathead, '39 box. '32 rear, juice brakes all around. Long and low, clean.

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Mike please share your pictures...you have had so many connections to this world of all things Hotrod we revere...your knowledge is book worthy...

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I should add that I have always had a soft spot for Model A sports Coupes, and along with Cabriolets, they are far better than thier roadster counterparts. With taller bodies, shorter quarter panels and longer doors, they have more room and offer better protection from the elements.

ALLIANCE MEMBER

Mike please share your pictures...you have had so many connections to this world of all things Hotrod we revere...your knowledge is book worthy...

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Thank you, Stogy! I'm 75 now, still doing the same thing I always have.
For the unwashed and/or 'yet-to-be-inhibited':
The Model A Sport Coupe and the Cabriolet is the long-longed for "3 window Model A". Check out some of the examples here. Amazing more didn't snap to it.
Some pics of mine? Well.......
Long story short: My 1st wife was beautiful, but ignorant. Took everything literally, so a sense of humor was nil. She was hyper jealous, so when my got rod buds would pull up to Grandma's house (around '58, thru '62) she envied what we were doing...but lacked the commitment to undertake a car project, or even read up. She wanted to 'star' in the latest hot rod happenings!
It finally 'jelled', and she collected all my pictures, some neatly in photo albums, others in drawers, some in my Mom's walk-in closet 'archives'. These were hastily stacked, and then burned in Grandma's huge living room hearth.
My sister said "Big fire, wonder what Janet was burning..." SHIT!!!! All my pictures, my '36 top-chop in sequence, my '33 Plymouth roadster pics, from a body & frame up to a roller. My 'Cabriolet' pics, from the field on my '36 chassis...to on my '32 rails, an up from there. My '32 Five window, all the way up from 2 rails. More, too. My '56 Ford, and Fremont Drags...and ALL my baby pictures. 'Just jealous', the psychologist said.
He later told me she was 'frightfully naive'.
She admitted that he asked her 'what her sex drive was like'. She answered, "Oh, usually a ride to Stevens Creek Dam in Mike's '36..." She told me he chuckled. That pissed her off. I was surprised she didn't set fire to him.
Anyhoo, that's why I don't post pics, they're gone. BUT!! My old friend Allen is retired in Oregon, and he found some of my old pictures! I have a new printer, my young wife says she can scan the pics and we can post them.
I want to try, but the last time was unsuccessful.